Month: August 2021

If Donald Trump decides to run for president in 2024, there’s a good chance that he’ll win the Republican nomination. A recent survey from the John Bolton Super PAC found that 46% of likely general election voters would back Trump being the party’s nominee.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis came in a distant second with 13% support.

Trump’s latest fundraising figures show that he has a whopping $102 million war chest to finance a run in 2024.

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Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows said that the former president recently met with “cabinet members” to discuss his political future and that they’re “moving forward” in a “real way.”

Mark Meadows from Bedminster: “We met with some of our Cabinet members tonight .. I can tell you this. We wouldn’t… https://t.co/QlHSTUpwrh

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski)
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It’s hard to believe that a president who inspired an insurrection at the Capitol building and did everything he could to overturn the results of an election could still have a single supporter, let alone tens of millions.

Shouldn’t there be a law that prevents people who attack the very fabric of American democracy from having the honor of holding its highest office? Fox News contributor Juan Williams believes there is a strong legal case to deny Trump the ability to run again.

Williams is a liberal outlier at the news outlet and was a regular co-host on Fox’s “The Five.” He stepped down from the role on the show earlier this year after contracting COVID-19.

In an op-ed for The Hill, Williams makes the case that Attorney General Merrick Garland can prevent Trump from running again by invoking Section 3 of the 14th Amendment which bars anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection” against the U.S.

No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

“The facts say Trump tried to stage a coup,” Williams wrote.

Juan Williams: Trump’s coup attempt should bar him from 2024 race https://t.co/8Vy3YYMhEX https://t.co/0kHDabUSmW

— The Hill (@thehill)
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Williams cites three actions by Trump that prove he engaged in insurrection.

He tried to hamstring acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen into saying the election was “corrupt.”

“Just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen,” Trump told Jeffrey Rosen, then the acting attorney general, in a December phone call.

In the weeks before that call, Trump also pressured his Attorney General William Barr to do the same. “We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit,” Barr later told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl.

The former president also tried to get Georgia’s secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger to “find” him votes to help him win the state.

Trump to Georgia: ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’

www.youtube.com

“So, yes, there is a case to be made that Trump committed crimes against America,” Williams wrote.

In a recent op-ed for The Washington Post, lawyers Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade, and Joyce White Vance urged Garland to block Trump from running again. “The bottom line is this: Now that Trump is out of office, the DOJ’s view that sitting presidents cannot be indicted no longer shields him. Attempted coups cannot be ignored,” they wrote.

“If Garland’s Justice Department is going to restore respect for the rule of law, no one, not even a former president can be above it,” the op-ed continued.

When Donald Trump was elected president he swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” His failure to do so should not only make him an unworthy choice for the American people but disqualify him from having the opportunity in the first place.

Williams makes a compelling argument that that Trump is legally ineligible to run again.

“Yes, Garland has the power to stop Trump from running again,” Williams wrote. “It is time to use it.”

Camila Cabello has been in the public eye ever since she was a teenager. The singer first auditioned for The X-Factor at just 15-years-old where she formed the prominent girl group Fifth Harmony before launching her own solo career. Since Cabello started her music career at such a young age, the singer said she oftentimes seeks advice from someone who understands what it’s like to sign a record deal as a teenager: Taylor Swift.

Cabello recently sat down for a cover interview with Bustle where she talked about her family, relationships, and upcoming album Familia. During her conversation, the singer revealed that she has always had a hard time maintaining friendships since she is always traveling for her job. But after meeting Swift, Cabello said she has learned a lot about the importance of committing to friendships:

“Taylor has always been so kind and supportive and also goes out of her way to give you artist advice. [She’s] really about making friendships and relationships the most important thing. She is so brave at watering those seeds of friendships and relationships. She always answers my texts and she’s so busy. I don’t even answer texts because I’m just worse at it. It takes intention to be like, ‘Let me write all my friends back.’”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cabello spoke about how she’s learned to shut down haters who criticize her body. “You can work out a few hours a day and never eat carbs and whatever, but that’s just not a balanced life. That’s not what I want… I can’t change to fit that mold,” she said. “I’m going to wear whatever, and if there’s paparazzi around, that sucks, but I’m not going to completely reroute who I am for that.”

Read Cabello’s full interview with Bustle here.

Foodbeast’s cooking competition show Kitchen League is getting its first official celebrity matchup this Thursday, teaming up with LG for the Kitchen League Homestyle Challenge where over the course of two hours viewers will get to help — or sabotage — either T-Pain or Olivia Culpo as they prepare homestyle meals that consist of a cocktail, appetizers, entree, and dessert. If you’re unfamiliar with Kitchen League, it’s not your average cooking competition. This one is live-streamed on Twitch and makes use of extensive audience participation where viewers can throw surprise challenges, tools, or ingredients the contestants’ way. The results are almost always blissfully chaotic (Uproxx’s Steve Bramucci remains undefeated in his quest for the coveted league belt).

This Thursday’s event will be hosted by Foodbeast Kitchen League’s Elie Ayrouth and T-Pain and Olivia Culpo will be assisted by and receive on-site coaching by HyperRPG’s Malika Lim and Chef Leon Brunson, respectively. While T-Pain is an easy crowd favorite because I mean c’mon, it’s T-Pain we’re talking about, Olivia Culpo has some serious kitchen skills. In addition to being a supermodel and actress, she’s also the owner of Back 40, a restaurant and bar in North Kingstown Rhode Island. So we’re willing to bet Culpo has the cocktail aspect of the competition locked in.

Of course, this is Kitchen League we’re talking about — anything is possible. Join in on the fun when Foodbeast’s Kitchen League Homestyle Challenge goes live this Thursday at Twitch.tv/foodbeast at 2 PM Pacific time.

Old Fitzgerald releases, from Heaven Hill, remain some of the most sought-after allocated bourbons on the market. Part of that comes from the mystique behind the wheated bourbon’s history with the Van Winkle family. Another aspect of the hype is that these are released in pretty small quantities to a select few markets and liquor stores (allocations), making them catnip on the secondary market. Lastly, there’s the quality of the juice in the bottle — it’s usually stellar.

Today, we’re digging into the whiskey in these fancy decanters to see how the two 2021 drops stand up side-by-side. We’re comparing the just-dropped Fall release (an eleven-year-old bourbon) with the Spring release (an eight-year-old bourbon). We’re looking at what’s changed, what’s the same, and which is better.

To do that, I’ll be pulling in my review of the Spring 2021 release’s tasting notes for comparison’s sake after I review the new Fall 2021 release. Then I’ll sum everything up at the end and see if I can manage to pick a favorite. Let’s dive in!

Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond 11 Years Aged, Fall 2021

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $110 MSRP

The Whiskey:

The juice in this decanter is an eleven-year-old bourbon pulled from barrels in Warehouse EE. The wheated bourbon was loaded into the rickhouse back in the spring of 2010 and left alone until 2021. The whiskey was then vatted and proofed down to the bottled-in-bond proof of 50 percent or 100 proof, as per federal law.

Tasting Notes:

This opens shockingly light with a note of dried fruit, creamy vanilla pudding, a touch of applewood with a smidge of cinnamon and clove, and the lightest note of leather. The palate leans into the maltiness of the wheat while touching back on that dried fruit (think sultanas and dates) and gently indulging in holiday cake spice, candied fruits, a hint of cedar-infused tobacco leaves, dry grass, and a malty cracker imbued with toffee and maybe a hint of dried almond shells. The end is pure silk with a line towards the drier aspects of the taste and malt plus a final note of piney firewood and apple-cinnamon fritters.

Bottom Line:

This is pretty damn even-keeled and delicious. It’s amazingly approachable while bringing some serious depth. You really get more and more as you go back for another nose and sip, again and again. It grows, makes sense, and is incredibly crushable.

Rating:

98/100 — This was damn near perfect. It’s also very easy to drink, making it a wonderful sipper while it’s still warm out.

FOR COMPARISON: Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond 8 Years Aged, Spring 2021

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $85 MSRP

The Whiskey:

This year’s spring release is a marriage of eight-year-old whiskeys produced in the spring of 2013. That distilled juice rested in barrels spread throughout three warehouses on several different floors. In spring of this year, those barrels were vatted and whiskey was proofed down to 100 (per bottled-in-bond law). Then the whiskey was filled into Old Fitzgerald’s signature decanters and sent out into the world.

Tasting Notes:

Goddamn! This is gorgeous. The nose draws you in with warming eggnog spice, creamy vanilla pudding, rich toffee, mild fruit, and a hint of wet cedar and very muted citrus. To say this is “smooth” would be an understatement. The silky taste dances around oven-hot pans of pecan and maple-glazed sticky buns with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg next to caramelized orange peel vibes and lightness that’s almost hard to believe. The finish is long, effervescent, and leaves you with this soft sense of having just eaten the best oatmeal raisin cookie of your life with just the right amounts of oats, spice, raisins, brown sugar, and crumble.

Bottom Line:

We can see how people go crazy for this juice. This is one of the most beautiful American whiskeys we’ve had in a while. This is classic bourbon flavors in a classic decanter but elevated to the next level. The taste is welcoming and fills you with a sense of ease. There are no rough edges. It’s somehow light while also brimming with big flavors. It’s a goddamn masterpiece.

Rating:

Ugh… I almost hate to do this, seeing as it’s such a high ranking for our first single bottle review of the year. But I just nosed and re-tasted this expression against my two favorite expressions of 2020 and, whew — 99/100. Final answer.

Final Thoughts:

Tasting these both again today, I have to give the edge to the Spring release. But I have to caveat that with the fact that my palate really loves those big, syrupy, Christmas cookie, spicy notes. The Fall 2021 is a masterstroke but a little drier and more into the woody spice barks with less textural depth and a little bit shorter finish.

I kind of feel like the Spring 2021 is going to be my go-to winter sipper after big meals with roasted fowl. The Fall 2021, on the other hand, feels like a late-summer sipper before things start to get too brisk and rainy. But, let’s be honest, I’m super-duper splitting hairs over these two exceptional whiskeys. I know, I know… great whiskey tastes great, who knew!?

Leah Remini isn’t the only sitcom actress who’s escaped the clutches of Scientology. That ’70s Show star Laura Prepon, who later appeared on Netflix’s prison-comedy Orange Is the New Black, told People that she exited the church five years ago.

“I’m no longer practicing Scientology,” she said. “I’ve always been very open-minded, even since I was a child. I was raised Catholic and Jewish. I’ve prayed in churches, meditated in temples. I’ve studied Chinese meridian theory. I haven’t practiced Scientology in close to five years and it’s no longer part of my life.” Prepon and her husband, actor Ben Foster, “meditate daily and I’m really liking it, because it’s something that helps me to hear my own voice and it’s something we can do together,” she added.

Prepon joined Scientology in 1999 and credits the alleged “cult” with helping her relax. “The auditing has stripped away all of this charge, false ideas, decisions, and mis-emotions that were affecting me,” she explained. “When you really cognate that you are a thetan and you have a mind and body, and that the MEST universe does not control you; it puts things into perspective. It takes the weight off you and things become very easy.” Sounds good — except for the allegations of human rights violations and how members were tailed by goons and the “brainwashing,” as Remini put it. It’s genuinely heartening to hear that Prepon found tranquility without the use of an E-meter.

(Via People)

Over a month ago, Taco Bell added Nacho Fries to their constantly shifting menu for the — hold on let me count… seventh time. No, that’s not an exaggeration. Since first launching in 2018 as a limited-edition menu item, the Nacho Fries have disappeared and reappeared on the menu over a half dozen times, which is a little ridiculous. If you’re a fan of Taco Bell’s attempt at the all-powerful French fry, then you probably have a pretty intimate relationship with heartbreak at this point.

Hopefully, things are different this time around, because I just tried Taco Bell’s Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries and they may just be the best menu item Taco Bell has given us since the Mexican Pizza. Which they’ve also taken away from us. Cruel, cruel Taco Bell.

Made in partnership with California-based hot sauce brand TRUFF, Taco Bell’s Loaded Nacho Fries feature seasoned French fries doused in a special mix of TRUFF hot sauce and Taco Bell’s Nacho Cheese sauce, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes, and a huge glob of sour cream. Taco Bell is also testing out a burrito version called the Loaded TRUFF Fries Burrito, which is just the same thing but wrapped in a tortilla.

If you want to get your hands on these truffle sauced fries you’ll have to wait a bit because currently, Taco Bell is only testing the TRUFF collaborations at a single Taco Bell location — Newport Beach, California — until August 21st. So if you live anywhere other than Southern California, you’re sadly out of luck. Luckily, I’ve had them, so for now you can at least live vicariously through me.

Let’s break these new dishes down.

Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries/ Loaded TRUFF Fries Burrito

Okay admittedly, the above picture doesn’t look fantastic. It looks less like food than it does a radioactive blob that is just waiting to wreak havoc on your digestive system. Welcome to Taco Bell. But don’t let its gut-bomb vibe fool you, this thing is full of flavor. A forkful gives you crispy french fries dusted in garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika — or as Taco Bell calls it “Mexican Seasonings,” which… okay — plus chunks of tomato, a redundant pinch of shredded cheddar cheese, some steak, all tied together with a spicy hit of the truffle sauce which is almost too umami dense but is expertly balanced by the tangy qualities of Taco Bell’s sour cream. It’s important to get all of those ingredients in your forkful because, on their own, only two of those ingredients are actually delicious. Let’s talk about them.

Taco Bell’s fries are some of the best in the game, they’re crispy on the outside, which supplies a nice crunch, and soft, buttery, and molten hot on the inside. But the true star of the show is that TRUFF Nacho Cheese hot sauce. Taco Bell’s hot sauce packets have always been lacking in my opinion. They don’t have the complexity that comes from fresh salsa, remaining very one-note (and that one note is vinegar). TRUFF remedies this by making a hot sauce that leans into bright chili notes that dance on the tongue and earthy umami-truffle notes while adding a sense of realness. Taco Bell’s food can often taste overly chemically, so that latter point is definitely a bonus.

Truffle sauce might be a bit played out in 2021, but at Taco Bell? The experience still feels novel. The TRUFF sauce seems carefully crafted and thoughtfully inspired — making this dish the anti-Mountain Dew Baja Blast. It’s just refreshingly unlike anything at Taco Bell, and that’s its real strength.

This brings us to the bad: everything else. The chopped tomatoes are fine, but the cheddar cheese feels unnecessary when coupled with a cheese sauce, and the steak is the saddest meat I’ve ever tasted and seen. It doesn’t look flame-grilled or seared like carne asada, it looks like someone boiled some steak. Ask to swap in ground beef, which may be hotly debated and significantly made of fillers but remains the Bell’s best protein option. The aforementioned sour cream does add balance but you should tell Taco Bell to go easy on it — it can certainly overpower the palate.

I’m a lot less enamored with the Loaded TRUFF Fries Burrito, which as I mentioned before, is the same thing just wrapped in a tortilla. Fries in a burrito is a love it or hate it thing. I happen to love it but in this dish, it ruins the fries. French fries wrapped in a tortilla will always get soggy, it’s just what happens, and that sogginess takes away this dish’s crunch, giving you a chewier experience that essentially tastes the same, but is a lot less satisfying to eat.

The burrito sounds tempting, especially if you love a good California burrito, but trust me on this one. It’s way too wet.

The Bottom Line

Taco Bell’s Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries succeed where so many other Taco Bell stunts fail — ahem, Naked Chicken Chalupa with a Plant-Based Shell (yes, its real name) — because it doesn’t keep things completely in-house. By collaborating with a brand that knows the hot sauce space intimately, Taco Bell has stumbled into a couple of menu items that feature fast food’s best hot sauce, by a mile.

The Loaded TRUFF Nacho Fries are a must-try when they finally appear on Taco Bell menus nationwide.

In the video for Young Nudy’s latest Rich Shooter single, “Green Bean,” the Atlanta-bred rapper relaxes on a bed of green pellets as scientists take notes, explores the solar system, and gets lost in an extraterrestrial rain forest, all while he reels off the details of his illicit activities over a bouncy beat provided by Pi’erre Bourne.

Rich Shooter, released on August 4, is Young Nudy’s second project of the year after the horror-themed Dr. Ev4l. He’s currently in the middle of a tour promoting both projects, the Dr. Ev4l vs. Rich Shooter tour, pitting both of his alter egos against one another through 10 cities including his native Atlanta, with dates remaining in Silver Springs, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

If we just went by singles, Dr. Ev4l would be ahead in that competition, with videos out for the title track, “2Face” featuring G Herbo, and the haunting “Soul Keeper.” Nudy also explained why it’s harder for him to collaborate with other artists in a July interview, saying, ““You gotta go in there and fake smile with somebody… They not just going to let you in the door.” With two personas to choose from, it’s less of a problem, although something tells me his real breakout will come when he gets over that social anxiety and starts working with some bigger names.

Watch the “Green Bean” video above.

Rich Shooter is out now on RCA. Get it here.

Lorde got all eyes on Solar Power with both its butt-bearing album art and the breezy title track, which performed well on the charts and has peaked at No. 2 in the US so far. The album is set to drop this week, so Lorde’s new single, “Mood Ring,” is presumably the final pre-album single. She shared the song today, which arrived accompanied by a video, in which Lorde debuts a new blonde look.

Lorde says of the song:

“This is a song I am very excited about, it’s so much fun to me. Obviously when making this album I did a deep-dive into ’60s, Flower Child culture. I wanted to understand the commune life, dropping out from society and trying to start again. That really resonated to me when writing this album. One thing that occurred to me as a major parallel between that time and our time is our wellness culture and our culture of spirituality, pseudo-spirituality, wellness, pseudo-wellness. Things like eating a macro-biotic vegan diet or burning sage, keeping crystals, reading tarot cards or your horoscope. These were all things that they were dabbling in back then, and that me and my girlfriends are dabbling in today. I was like, ‘I think there’s a pop song in here.’ So this is kind of my extremely satirical look at all of those vibes.”

The new track was preceded by “Solar Power” and “Stoned At The Nail Salon,” which have achieved Hot 100 peaks at Nos. 2 and 33, respectively. It remains to be seen if “Mood Ring” will be a hit, but Lorde doesn’t seem to be trying for those these days. That’s not a knock on her: She said so herself. In a recent interview, she said of her new album, “There’s definitely not a smash. It makes sense that there wouldn’t be a smash, because I don’t even know really what the smashes are now.” She also said she’d never try to have a hit like her own “Royals” again, noting, “What a lost cause. Can you imagine? I’m under no illusion. That was a moonshot.”

Watch the “Mood Ring” video above.

Solar Power is out 8/20 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

There are two types of people in this world – those who panic and fill up their cars with gas when the needle hits 25% or so, and people like me who wait until the gas light comes on, then check the odometer so you can drive the entire 30 miles to absolute empty before coasting into a gas station on fumes.

I mean…it’s not empty until it’s empty, right?

But just how far can you drive your car once that gas light comes on? Should you trust your manual?

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Now, thanks to Your Mechanic sharing this information in a recent post, you can know for sure. Of course, they also want to warn you that driving on a low fuel level or running out of gas can actually damage your car.

Proceed at your own risk.

Here’s a link to a larger version of the chart.

These are, of course, approximations that depend on several factors, including how you drive, your car’s condition, etc. So don’t automatically blame Your Mechanic if you find yourself stranded on the side of the road.

This article originally appeared on November 24, 2015

When it comes to breasts, Americans really have it twisted. We’ve sexualized them to such a point we no longer see them for their main purpose: feeding babies. This disconnect is so extreme that when women breastfeed their children in public they are often met with scorn or shame.

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Florida mom and anti-circumcision advocate, Ashley Kaidel, isn’t having it anymore.

Kaidel was breastfeeding in an unnamed restaurant when another diner gave her the stink-eye, just for feeding her child in public. So Kaidel took a photo of herself staring right back at the shamer and posted it to Facebook. The photo quickly went viral, receiving over 420,000 likes.

In her post, she explained why she had such a stern look on her face.

“In the picture, it appears I’m staring off into the distance. In reality, I’m staring into the eyes of a woman staring at me. She is looking at me with disgust and shaking her head with judgement in an attempt to shame me and indirectly tell me without words that I am wrong and need to cover myself.”

Kaidel says she breastfeeds in public to reduce the stigma surrounding it.

“I do this for the person that has the mentality ‘Boobs are to be covered. They’re for your husbands eyes only. They’re intimate. It’s a personal/private thing to feed your baby. Cover up out of respect. My kids don’t need to see that. Walk out of the room’ and any other derogatory, close-minded comments and sentiments alike.”

Then, she cut through all the nonsense surrounding breasts to explain their real purpose.

“[B]reasts were made to sustain your baby’s life before they were made to bring pleasure to any other man, woman, partner or spouse. Their sole purpose is to make food and dispense it straight into a baby’s mouth. There is nothing weird about this and there’s no difference in me feeding my baby with my breast than you feeding yourself with a spoon.”

Finally, Kaidel had some strong words for the next person who attempts to shame her for breastfeeding in public.

“No person should be isolated and shunned because they’re eating, especially when you yourself are eating while ridiculing how someone else is eating. Is it not certainly easier to avert your eyes from a displeasing sight rather than suggest or demand a mother and child remove themselves from your presence? How pompous and selfish is this? Just look away. It’s simple to do so. No harm done at all.”